Behind the Mask
I always knew there was a heart behind her skin. I also knew it wasn't cold and unforgiving. But even she believed she was evil. But I know what's behind the mask. Written by Jessica Characters Main Katie Minor Heather Katie The Killer Mr. Labrador Noah Sadie The Story I wish I knew what was going on so I could stop him. Then maybe I wouldn’t be dead. Maybe. I might still be living in the horrible world, but I would be with the people I loved. And I wouldn’t be stuck knowing I could’ve helped. But it’s too late for the ifs and buts. I can only wish that I was there. Dream I was there. It was a while ago, now, but it still lingers in my brain. And it lingers in my heart. ~~~~ “Katie Shnell, are you here? Katie Shnell?” I had spaced out into my wonderland in art class that day, staring out the beautiful stain glass window. A beautiful and peaceful pond where no one would hate anyone else. Boy, was that a dream. Hate is something real and won’t just disappear like that. If it did, I would be praying to the heavens like no one ever has. If only… Katie Saunders, my table partner, knocked her shoulder into my own. “K.C. He’s calling your name.” I woke up from the dream I got lost in and quickly shouted, “Here!” My art teacher, Mr. Labrador, rolled his eyes. He was one of those people who hated everyone else. Surprisingly, for an art teacher, I found him to be a real piece of crap. Usually, the art teachers you see in movies are all, I don’t know, calm and all free-spirited, but Mr. Labrador had no heart or soul in him whatsoever. “Okay, so it’s time to start class now. Today, class, we’ll be learning about…” I went back into my daydreams and paid no attention to the rest of the class. According to Katie Saunders, all we did was talk about Van Gogh, an artist who I could give two shits about, no offense to him, of course. The rest of the day went by so slowly, but I hadn’t really paid attention to anything anybody had said. Most of my teachers didn’t care, as long as I replied with a perky, “Here!” during attendance. My teachers loved me, too, so they promised to help me later in the week. Except… I would never get to later in the week. Ever. Tenth period came and I was free to leave school. That’s one advantage of me being in the chorale course over the regular chorus course. Unfortunately, only three other people were in the same period as me, and they were my least favorite people in the school; Heather Brooks, Katie Saunders, and Sadie Anders. However, my boyfriend also was able to go home, and we walked home together every day. Heather’s a problem, but she’ll be the easiest to explain. Heather is mean-spirited, cold-blooded, and lacks a soul. She shows no emotion other than anger or… well, a calmer anger. She’s cruel toward her teachers, but they love her because she’s a genius. She thinks she’s popular, but everyone does things for her and hangs out with her because they’re scared of her, even her two closest “friends.” Sadie Anders has no mind of her own. Heather owns this girl and makes Sadie do everything for her. Heather tends to make fun of Sadie for her weight. I’ve never actually seen Sadie away from Heather, but I have seen her away from Katie and she gets really scared because she feels like she’s the only one there to take Heather’s wrath, even though Heather spreads the joy around. Finally, there’s Katie Saunders, another one of Heather’s closest followers. Katie, in fact, does have a mind of her own. In fact, she’s a very smart person. From what I know about her, her life is pretty good. The only reason she follows Heather is because her parents feel bad for Heather because no one else likes her. That, and because her best friend, Sadie, was also there. Katie is the only one of three to ever actually date a boy who liked her; it was Noah Harris. Noah Harris, a cynical bookworm who knows how to treat a girl. Although he’s not the jock-type, I still was very much in love with him. Yes, he and Katie broke-up and he started dating me soon after. That’s why Katie and “no-brain” Sadie don’t really like me. I walked over toward my locker. I hoped for no confrontation with Heather and her posse today, but my hopes were too much to ask for. “Smelly, what are you doing?” Ah, the sweet sound of Heather making fun of my last name. I gave her none of my attention. Why would I waste my breath? “Why aren’t you answering, Smelly?” I held back my anger. Again, no time to waste on a bitch. “You little shitter, answer me!” She got loud enough to make sure I heard, but kept it quiet enough so others wouldn’t. “Fuck off. I don’t need this shit right now.” I sighed and walked away, closing my locker behind me. I felt a tug on my bag and was pulled to the ground by a strong force. It was Sadie. “What the-?! Why the hell did you do that?!” I shouted. I got louder. I wasn’t too loud, but loud enough. “I’ve got a better question,” Heather stated. “Why the hell were you born?” She smirked. Katie and Sadie nervously smiled. “Uh, Heather,” Katie butt in, “I don’t think we should be making a scene inside the school building, even though she’s a boyfriend stealer.” “I didn’t steal Noah, he came to me after you,” I angrily said. “The four of us used to be best friends. Remember Katie, Sadie? Before this bitch came around.” Katie walked away. She was sensitive. Her parents would get into fights when she was younger and she would cry. I knew this because me and her were good friends before high school. Sadie was also one of my close friends, but she was better friends with Katie. Noah was the only boy that we liked as a person and he would be torn when Heather came along. “Sadie?” She turned towards me. “Remember how we used to hang-out all the time? How you, me, Katie, and Noah would play on the playground together and how we used to go out for pizza once we were in sixth grade? Do you remember?” Sadie frowned. “Yeah, K.C. I do remember. Do you remember why we, erm, broke our friendship up?” I nodded and pointed at Heather. “Her.” “No,” Sadie replied sturdily, “it was when you decided to be part of the popular crows and left us behind.” “I wanted you to be in with my new crowd of friends. But when they wouldn’t accept you, and you guys decided to hang out with it,” I pointed at Heather, “it was as if you guys rejected me.” Sadie frowned and walked away. “You can think whatever you want, but it was you who rejected us.” Heather pushed me to the ground. “Smelly, don’t even try to convince them to be your friend again. They won’t. They’ve come to the dark side. I offered the big one a cookie and the skinny one followed.” I rolled my eyes. Noah would be here in a matter of seconds. I know that if I was caught in a fight with Heather, he would disown me. I stood up and started walking away. “Heather, there’s no reason to always be a bitch. You can be nice. I know it. When you first got here, you were so sweet and nice, and now you’re the biggest bitch in the school.” Heather snickered. “You have no idea what I go through in my life, K.C.” This is the first time she ever called me by my real name. “And you’ll never understand. You’ll never know what’s behind the mask.” I turned, but she was already gone. “You ready to go, babe?” I heard a voice behind me. A soothing one. “Yeah, Noah,” I turned and huddled under the warm arm of my boyfriend. I had considered befriending Heather once, when I first met her. She had the decency to not wear clothes that showed her ass and her breasts. But when I found out she was the biggest bitch in the world, I realized that no one should be her friend. Later that night, Noah and I did our homework together and I cooked a meal for him while my parents were out at a dinner party. It was matzo ball soup. Little did I know that this would be my last meal. After Noah left, I started to watch TV in my living room while studying for my European History test. Bad idea, I know, but I was so stressed, I needed something to keep me calm and TV was that one thing. The news was on. “Now to some breaking news. A young girl living in Quebec was brutally murdered very recently. Her name was Heather Brooks.” I cringed. Did they just say Heather was killed? The newswoman went on. “Sources say that her throat was slashed and their only clue was a playing card with a half-mask on it. We’ll be back after these important messages.” Holy shit. I shut the TV down and went back to just studying from my textbook. No more TV for me. I kept thinking about Heather. Yeah, she wasn’t the nicest person, but there was no need for anyone to go out of their way to kill her. I brought my laptop over from the dining room, a few minutes later, and opened up my chat messenger. None of my friends were online but I still kept it open to play music. If anything could help me forget about this for a while, it was either my friends or my music. The song “Sunday Morning” was on and I started forgetting all about Heather, until… A message popped up on my screen. It was from someone with the username HollowbrookMisterE. HollowBrookMisterE: Hello, there. I blinked at the screen. Who was this creep? HollowBrookMisterE: How are you, Katie? Holy shit. This guy knows my name. HollowBrookMisterE: '''Click the following link. '''HollowBrookMisterE: video I was scared, but I knew I had to. I clicked the video link. The screen showed a dark bedroom. It was familiar. It had hot pink paint and looked like a teenage girl’s room. But… it wasn’t one of my friends. It was a dead girl’s. It was Heather’s. Shnellykinz: who r u??? y r u in heathers room??? HollowBrookMisterE: Keep watching. I continued the video. Heather was lying on her bed, sleeping. It had a timestamp on it. 10:00PM. That was an hour ago. This guy must be her killer. Suddenly, a man wearing half of a smiling mask popped his face onto the screen. I jumped a bit at his sight. I knew who this was. At least, I thought I did. The man showed a pillow in one of his hands to the camera and pushed it over Heather’s head. For a few seconds, there was muffled screaming. And then… an eerie silence. Slowly, he pulled a kitchen knife out and swung it across her neck. Blood splattered everywhere. Before I knew what I was doing, I moved my mouse toward the forwarding button and forward the conversation to everyone I knew. Within seconds, over fifty of my friends had watched the same video I did. And then, suddenly, another link from the man, of which was a live stream. HollowBrookMisterE: stream video I forwarded it to all the same people, and when I clicked the link, it showed the back of someone’s head. And then, it showed a face. It was the same man in Heather’s room. It was the same man who murdered her. I recognized the room as my own. And the head, also as my own head. I was too afraid to turn around. I realized that the man who killed Heather would soon become the same man that murdered me. Before I knew what was happening, all of the people that were watching the video sent me hundreds of messages. But two would leave a lasting impression in me forever. KatieSadie: K.C., we love you. Please don’t ever take offense to what we said. You’ll always be with us. NoAhKaTiE: K.C., you will forever be in my head. I will never love anyone like I love you. My final two messages before I was killed. Eventually, they caught my killer, and you’ll never believe who it was, but let’s get back to the story of my death. My throat was slit and my blood was all over my floor. And it was by a man that kept Heather behind her mask. The one that made her be the way she was. The one that pressured her into being the bitchiest bitch in the world. The demon himself. It was Heather’s dad. Trivia *This will be my darkest story. *This went from a long drama, to a one-shot. *I posted this on September 1st, 2012. *This story turned out freakier than I had planned. The long story would've ended with Heather dying, similar to how she did. *I updated this on March 5th, 2013. **The updated version includes some old elements, but some new elements, like an added reason behind Heather and K.C.'s annoyance of each other. Category:Drama stories Category:One-Shots Category:Noncompetition stories Category:Lindsay's Stories